Friday, 18 January 2013

Outsourcing doesn't always work

Many firms outsource work they want done. But how many employees outsource their own job? This is from the Globe and Mail

Bob was his company’s best software developer, got glowing performance reviews and earned more than $250,000 a year.

Then one day last spring, Bob’s employer, an American infrastructure company, thought its computer network had been attacked by a virus.

The ensuing forensic probe revealed that Bob’s software code had in fact been the handiwork of a Chinese subcontractor.

Bob was paying a Chinese firm about $50,000 a year to do his work, then spent the day surfing the web, watching cat videos and updating his Facebook page.

“This particular case was pretty unique,” computer security investigator Andrew Valentine, who helped uncover Bob’s scheme, said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. “We thought it was actually pretty clever.”

I'm guessing this type of outsourcing only works when the boss doesn't know about it!

Bob was fired for violating internal company policy, Mr. Valentine said in his e-mail to The Globe and Mail.

By all accounts, the Chinese contractor did an excellent job and until then it reflected well on Bob.

The negative externality of this for the other employees of the company is that now management knows about the high quality of the Chinese contractor they may start officially outsourcing work to them.